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tills kind of soil, may be ascertained by a simple experiment.A cubic-foot of wet new dug moss, will weigh from 50 to 80 lib.weight, according to density or quality of different kinds of thatsubstance. Yet, by compression alone, one-half of the weight,and in some cases much more, may b,e squeezed out in the formof moss water. When the moss that is left is afterwards pulver-ized and dried in the sun, it will lose one-third at least of its re-maining weight by evaporation ; so that the dry solid vegetablematter of moss, is not much above one-fourth of its weight in itsoriginal state. As moss of all sorts contains thus the greatestproportion of water, it is clear, that when drained and dug, itmust collapse and sink to a greater extent than any other soil.Besides, a body of liquid pulpy moss, frequently forms the sub-soil, while the. surface is considerably consolidated. The Dul-latur Bog, in the neighbourhood of Kilsyth, is of this descrip-tion. Two or three feet of moss forms the surface; below thislies 10, 20, 80, and in some places upwards of 4-0 feet of liquidpulp, so loose, that a pole penetrates through it, with nearly asmuch ease as through a lake. If this, or any other moss of si-milar consistency were tapped, it must collapse and sink 10, 15,or even 20 feet. A bog in Ireland , when drained, sunk thus far.
Some marine mosses, are so loose and pulpy in the subsoil,that if drained, they might easily be reduced to a level, suffici-ently low for warping; especially if the coarse and useless herb-age on die surface, were, in the first instance, pared and burnt.If afterwards warped, in the manner above described, they mightbecome the most fertile soils in the empire. Besides, it is oftenmore easy to embank this than any other soil ; for if a rim,or broad ridge, 30 or 40 feet wide, along the bank of the river,were left undug, and planted with willows, it would serve as animpervious bank, to shut out or let in the water at pleasure :While the rest of the surface was dug, and drained, and cropped,and thereby reduced to a low level, this bank, left undug, wouldnot sink in the same proportion, but might serve the purpose atleast of an excellent foundation for a more solid bank, eventhough, of itself, it might be too light, loose, or low, to servethat purpose.
There are mosses and moors, which, though too high to beflooded or warped, may yet be improved by mud, salt, and seasand, thrown out by the tides. Along the Western coast ofLancashire , there are many meres, or salt marshes, which areonly two, three, or four feet, above the level of spring tide. Ifparallel ditches w r ere cut through these extensive levels, four, five,or six feet deep, so as to allow the tide freely to flow—and if byone general sluice it were prevented from receding with rapidity,so as to leave the warp in the bottom of these ditches, it mighteasily be thrown out on the adjacent ridges between, and operateas a powerful manure. But this is an operation different from